The Great Bear: A Thematic Anthology of Oral Poetry in the Finno-Ugrian Languages

by Lauri Honko, Senni Timonen, Michael Branch

Over a period of fifteen years, the authors of this beautiful volume have collected and translated 450 orally transmitted poems, songs, charms, prayers, and laments from Finno-Ugrian languages such as Finnish, Estonian, and Lapp. Presented in both English and the original languages, these
works offer unique insights into the worldview and lives of pre-literate peoples in various stages of cultural and social development. The poems reveal the beliefs, perceptions, and artistic genius of fifteen peoples scattered across Northern Europe from Scandinavia, deep into Russia and beyond the
Urals, and of the Hungarians in Central Europe. Magnificently produced, with more than forty-five illustrations, the book begins with contexualizing essays on the Finno-Ugrian peoples, oral poetry, and the beliefs and ritual practices reflected in the poems. The poems themselves are arranged
thematically, according to such topics as cosmology, hunting, agriculture, animal husbandry, love, marriage, healing, and death. They are followed by a poem-by-poem commentary which contextualizes and explicates the text.

Genres: Poetry

816 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Ainaten · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know what this book was doing in my tiny podunk New Jersey childhood library, but I've always loved this enormous tome so much that I finally ordered it at work several years ago to make sure that it got to me safely and then lugged it home on my one-hour subway commute (couldn't resist taking it out and reading it and then ended up explaining to a bunch of curious commuters what "Finno-Ugrian" means and getting them interested in bear ceremonies). The poetry is beautiful, the photographs are divine, and the whole thing totally feeds my Finnophilia.